For individuals living near water, especially in an area where large storms are common, flooding becomes an expensive and dangerous risk in day-to-day life. Floodwaters are a major source of property damage. They can come from waters rising during a storm surge, from swollen rivers rising above flood stage due to snow melt or heavy rains, or from waters saturating the ground and overloading the drainage systems during extended periods of heavy rainfall. An ever-present need exists to manage and prevent floodwaters from inundating or infiltrating buildings and other constructions.
Perhaps areas with the most risk are structures near the shorelines of a body of water. Some cities have constructed levies, flood gates, fabricated steel barriers, and concrete walls to help protect the buildings and residents nearby. These city-wide solutions tend to be time consuming to construct, prone to failure as the assembly ages, and far too costly for many to consider. These also block the desired open view of the water nearby and disturb the natural beauty of the landscape.
In the current arts, many designs exist for the mediation of water damage to a structure or environment. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2012/0034032 to Waters et al. describes a self-actuating flood guard for a construction which holds a buoyant gate at an elevation spaced from the ground. This is positioned between flanking spaced vertical boundary walls adapted for connection to the construction. The gate is pivotable members about a horizontal axis normal to the boundary walls for buoyant rotation upwardly between the boundary walls on rise of water above the elevation.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,435,036 to University Court of Glasgow is directed towards a flexible water gate suitable for retaining water in a port canal or river estuary. While this system may be useful for large scale environment, it is impractical for private home or business use.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,764 to Rorheim is directed towards a portable flood barrier section located on a ground to form a barrier against flooding water. The invention has an erectable wall which along one of its edges is hinged to a basis. The hinge enables rotating erection of the wall from an essentially horizontal position to an erect position. A flexible or rigid tie which extends from the basis to the wall on the flooded side of the wall prevents an erection of the wall beyond the erected position. A seal is in the erected position of the flood barrier section located between the flood barrier section and the ground.
While the aforementioned prior art may help with flood mitigation, a more elegant, economical, and universal system is desired in the current art. One such solution is described in the embodiments herein.